Lyons Journal; A New Mosque as a Beacon for a 'French Islam'

By ALAN RIDING,

Published: October 29, 1994

LYONS, France, Oct. 26—
In the 15 years since the idea of building a Grand Mosque in Lyons was first broached, it became a topic of such heated debate that even after its first stone was laid in 1992, few people here believed that the dazzling white Islamic "cathedral" would ever be completed.

Both the Roman Catholic Archbishop and the Chief Rabbi of Lyons favored giving the 130,000 Muslims in France's second-largest city a proper place of worship. But the extreme rightist National Front was fiercely opposed, while the mosque's future neighbors fought the project in court.

Indeed, even after the mosque was finally opened last month, France's mood was hardly welcoming. Weeks earlier, the Government had deported two dozen Arab men as suspected Islamic extremists, and since then, it has renewed its campaign to stop girls from wearing Islamic head-coverings to school.

Yet for all of France's nervousness about having some four million Muslims living in its midst, a nervousness deepened of late by fears that an Islamic takeover in nearby Algeria would bring an influx of immigrants and refugees, the Grand Mosque of Lyons is a symbol of hope.

Despite rightist demands that immigrants be sent home, the Government knows that they are here to stay. But it also believes that if France is not to feel permanently threatened by imported Islamic extremism, a French version of Islam must take root. And it is looking to the new mosque here to help that happen.

"We now realize that Islam in France is a French reality and not just a foreign issue or an extension of foreign problems," France's Interior Minister, Charles Pasqua, said at the mosque's inauguration. "So it is not enough to have an Islam in France. There should also be a French Islam."

By that, he said, he meant an Islam that respected France's republican and secular principles, that recognized the rights of men and women, that did not view France as "a space to conquer," that did not allow "the tree of fundamentalism to hide the forest of moderate, tolerant and discreet Islam that you represent."

The response from the mosque's elders was the one Mr. Pasqua wanted. "This mosque will be permanent proof that Islam is a religion that can be practiced in strict adherence to French law," said Rabah Kheliff, a French citizen who heads the Islamic-French Cultural Association of Lyons, which runs the mosque.

The mosque has also tried to assuage French sensibilities. Its minaret, for example, does not soar like a church spire, but is a simple square turret just 80 feet high. And five times a day, the call to prayer can be heard only inside the mosque, not across the neighborhood.

The mosque's Grand Mufti, Abdelhamid Chirane, an Algerian-born scholar who has spent the last 30 years in France, said he stood "midway between two cultures -- the marvels of the Koran and the culture of Descartes."

The catalyst for the new debate has been evidence that sympathizers of Algeria's banned Islamic Salvation Front are beginning to infiltrate France's Muslim population and, even more, to influence some children of North African immigrants who, though born in France, feel alienated from French society.

The Government's immediate response was to step up police surveillance of Muslim organizations, and as a symbol of its determination to uphold French secular tradition, to order schools to refuse entry to Muslim girls who insist on wearing headscarves to classes.

But the search for a French Islam also implies that France must make room for its Muslim population. Already the Government is promoting formation of French-born imams to replace those brought from abroad, and it wants Muslims to form a national organization with which the French state can deal.

The mosque in Lyons, like the country's six other large mosques, offers a focal point to Muslims who otherwise must worship in small improvised prayer rooms. "I think this is the beginning of a French Islam," Mr. Chirane said.

Unsurprisingly, Denis de Bouteiller, a National Front leader in Lyons, disagrees. "The mosque is a symbol of the permanent implantation of the immigrants," he said. "As for French Islam, Pasqua is dreaming. If foreign powers financed construction of the mosque, it's because they want something in return."

Certainly, the mosque was built only because King Fahd of Saudi Arabia contributed two-thirds of its $6 million cost. Algeria, the United Arab Emirates and Tunisia also chipped in, while French Muslims collected only $600,000. But Mr. Chirane insisted that the mosque was not controlled from abroad.

"We are a very poor community so we had to get outside money," said Djida Tazdait, the president of Young Arabs of Lyons and Suburbs. "But we want a French mosque, a French imam, even better an imam from Lyons."